REEL Milwaukee
2009 Italian Film Fest Hits Milw, Free Screenings May 9-10
Award winning films from Italy.
May 8th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
Meet ANVIL director Sacha Gervasi
This is a film about undying friendship, the pursuit of true art and of course, melting faces. TCD and Gervasi spoke, and now you listen. ANVIL opens throughout the Midwest this week.
May 6th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
You Can Help Save FILM WI Tax Incentives WED 4/29 – Thurs 4/30 @ 11am – CALL NOW!
Want your voice to be heard and do your part to help save the Film WI Tax Incentives? Call Your State Senator Today! This is a rare opportunity to help a filmmaker and call a State Senator in your underwear at the same time! Think about it. Its like Halley’s Comet. Read on and call ASAP! Cultural Alliance of Greater Milwaukee April 29, 2009 Forwarding this important information on behalf of Arts Wisconsin. Please CALL Joint Finance Committee members today to urge their support of the film industry tax incentives! The Joint Finance Committee will meet in Executive Session on Thursday, April 30, beginning at 11 am in Room 412 East of the State Capitol. The Committee will be considering and voting on the improved film industry tax incentives package put forth by Rep. Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee). TODAY IS THE DAY to ensure that funding for the incentives is included in the 2009-2011 state budget. You can help make this happen by taking action RIGHT NOW. If your legislator is a Joint Finance Committee member – the list is below – please CALL with this message: “I am a constituent of Sen. /Rep. Smith and I want him/her to support and vote for the improved film industry tax incentives proposal at the April 30 Joint Finance Committee Executive Session. His/her support will help create jobs in the district and across the state, and is greatly appreciated!” You can tell this message to the staff member who answers the phone; the staff member will ask for your name and address, to make sure you are a constituent. If each of the 16 members of the Committee receives 10 phone calls today, they will know that there is support in their district and statewide. Don’t delay! Call now! Legislative offices are usually open until 5 pm, but if you get the voicemail, you can leave a message. Make sure to include your name and address. More information is at http://capwiz.com/artsusa/wi/issues/alert/?alertid=12751846&type=ML&show_alert=1. If you have any questions, please contact Arts Wisconsin at 608 255 8316 akatz@artswisconsin.org. Joint Finance Committee Senate Members : Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, Co-Chair, 16th District Sen.Miller@legis.wisconsin.gov, (608) 266-9170 Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, 8th District, Sen.Darling@legis.wisconsin.gov, 608 266 5830 Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, 30th District, Sen.Hansen@legis.wisconsin.gov, 608 266 5670 Sen. Julie Lassa, D-Stevens Point, 24th District, Sen.Lassa@legis.wisconsin.gov, 608 266 3123 Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, 21st District, Sen.Lehman@legis.wisconsin.gov, 608 266 1832 Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, 14th District, Sen.Olsen@legis.wisconsin.gov, 608 266 0751 Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, 15th District, Sen.Robson@legis.wisconsin.gov, 608 266 2253 Sen.Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, 4th District, Sen.Taylor@legis.wisconsin.gov, 608 266 5810 Assembly members: Rep. Mark Pocan, D- Madison, 78th District, Co-Chair Rep.Pocan@legis.wisconsin.gov, (608) 266-8570 Rep. Pedro Colón, D-Milwaukee, 8th District, Rep.Colon@legis.wisconsin.gov, 608 267 7669 Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee, 18th District, Rep.Grigsby@legis.wisconsin.gov, 608 266 0635 Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, 62nd District, Rep.Mason@legis.wisconsin.gov, 608 266 0634 Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Green Bay, 4th District, Rep.Montgomery@legis.wisconsin.gov, 608 266 5840 Rep. Jennifer Shilling, D-LaCrosse, 95th District, Rep.Shilling@legis.wisconsin.gov, 608 266 5780 Rep. Gary Sherman, D-Port Wing, 94th […]
Apr 29th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
MILWAUKEE STORIES – a series of short films @ MAM Thursday Apr 30
Hey Film Kiddies: Milwaukee Film is proud to invite you to the premiere screening of MILWAUKEE STORIES, an ongoing series of short films that inner city teens (working with filmmaker mentors) have created about their lives and their locale. The program, originated by Maxine Wishner, was produced in cooperation with Running Rebels, a youth community organization since 1980. The result of this year’s collaboration is five intense and heartfelt, homegrown Milwaukee films. These films inspire discussion, advance our pre-conceptions about neighborhood life, and hopefully will enhance connections within the diverse communities of Milwaukee. Thursday, April 30 2009 Milwaukee Art Museum – Lubar Auditorium 700 North Art Museum Dr., Milwaukee, WI 53202 5:30PM – 6:00PM Meet and Greet 6:15PM – 7:15PM Screening and Discussion with Filmmakers REEL Milwaukee ran into Maxine Wishner at Oakland Gyros at bartime last week and this is what we gots. OK, we did a formal interview but late night, OG, that’s more interesting than phone calls and emails. Anyway….. TCD: What makes Milwaukee Stories unique? What sets it apart from other doc-series screenings? MW: MILWAUKEE STORIES pairs five successful filmmakers with five of the Running Rebels’ youth. The intent was to create workshops and one-on-one dialogue in a safe environment where trust could grow. This comfort encouraged the youth to create authentic films that offer insight into a population with which most Milwaukeeans are unacquainted. Also unique is that we have advisers for MILWAUKEE STORIES; psychologists and children’s lawyers that educate us re: the issues of the neighborhood. The youth also act as advisers, offering feedback that is first-hand. We keep in touch with these teens, and two of the young storytellers from the first season became mentors for this year. I was introduced to Running Rebels, a community space that helps at risk kids that go through the courts . These aren’t high school kids who have their own computers. These are kids in transition, many of whom need to stay out of trouble. Our first two years we worked at Running Rebels. We started out showing a film and talking about the project. A lot of kids were interested, but we chose five and they stayed throughout the program. A few months ago Running Rebels bought a camera. They may be making films on their own, which means we succeeded at our job. We are going to meet other communities and make films there as well. Our outreach also sets us apart. We intend to use these films to create dialogues among communities, to show to young teachers who will be entering that population. They will air in school and other communities and each film will have some talking points. We are hoping if kids are interested in film we can put them in touch with potential places for employment. TCD: When and why did you start this program? MW: I moved back home in 2006 after decades of making films in New York. Wanted to know more about what was happening in other […]
Apr 28th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
FREE SCREENING of Wilco Documentary ASHES OF AMERICAN FLAGS Mon 4/20
Monday 4/ 20 (holler): Free Wilco Movie @ Turner Hall (double holler): Pull up a chair and remenise on Wilco's sold out 2 day run at the Pabst at this amazing FREE SCREENING!!
Apr 18th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
Wildwood Film Festival – WI only Films! 4/17 & 4/18
WILDWOOD FILM FESTIVAL Appleton, WI Friday April 17 and Saturday April 18 The Wildwood Film Festival is a festival for Wisconsin films only. Whether it’s the primary creative personnel (producer/director/writer), the actors or even the locations, all projects featured have direct ties to the state. The line-up this year offers something for everyone-comedies, dramas, thrillers and more! Ah, and more! You gotta love it. Get in the car and go to WI only true WI festival! Click Here for the schedule.
Apr 15th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
What Goes Around Comes Around 3rd Annual Milwaukee Invitational 35mm Slideshow Fri 4/24
If this isnt the most heart warming thing you’ve read all day, I demand that you unplug your typewriter from your TV and never log onto the interweb again. xo, REEL Milw @ TCD Carousel: What Goes Around Comes Around 3rd Annual Milwaukee Invitational 35mm Slideshow Friday, April 24, 7pm $4 Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E Locust St. 414 263 5001 / http://www.woodlandpattern.org Presented by the UWM Film Department and Woodland Pattern Book Center “Carousel” unspools like this: Carousel sends a roll of slide film out to invited artists who work in a variety of media, but not slideshows. They in turn make their first slideshow – of their own design. No rules regarding quantity of slides (or of projectors, or of screens) or regarding accompanying sound. The slideshows are debuted in live performance the night of the show. Past multimedia extravaganzas have featured “audience chant-a-longs; slides advancing at high speed so as to achieve animation; acting performances; overlapping imagery; slides projected side-by-side; confessionals (something along the lines of a catalogue of former boyfriends); one banjo; and something bordering on witchcraft.” [excerpted from attached Press Release.] Organized, in part, as a tribute to this mechanism the slide projector, which is now no longer manufactured, but also as testimony to its ongoing potential and possibility. While PowerPoint is widespread – even uncorked in a popular series of local barroom events – 35mm slide projectors offer a singular combination of artistry and of the homespun, of the evanescently beautiful and of the reliably mechanical. As the Carousel artists testify, reports of the slide projector’s death is premature. And Woodland Pattern’s gallery space is a perfect venue to unfurl these creations. A most intimate setting for this unique relationship between advancing image and rapt audience. It is also the best venue to enjoy the comforting purr and clunky click of the slide projector in action. (At last weekend’s Edible Book Art show, Woodland Pattern offered pages to eat; on April 24th it will eschew the digital.) This year’s invited slide show artists include: Brian Perkins (Milwaukee); Kimberly Miller (Milwaukee); Warehouse Cinema (Milwaukee): Patrick Gulke & Drew Kunz (Bainbridge Island, Washington); Jennifer Kelly (Brooklyn); John Orth & Alan Calpe (Gainesville / Brooklyn); Angela Deane (New York City); and more!
Apr 13th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
Road trip! 2009 WI Film Festival guide
The 2009 Wisconsin Film Festival starts TODAY and runs through April 5. Pack a bag - we're going to Madison! Here are Howie Goldklang's picks for the party.
Apr 2nd, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
Milw / TCD Filmmaker Finalist in Warner Brothers / CW Network Film Contest – VOTE TODAY!
LAST WEEK TO VOTE!! Local filmmaker and long-time, much-loved TCD contributor Howie Goldklang is a FINALIST in the CW Green Your World contest. The contest has 4 filmmakers submitting weekly vlogs (video blogs) reporting on green, eco-cool initiatives in their town. Please click over, vote MILWAUKEE, vote for HOWIE GOLDKLANG! CLICK HERE TO VOTE
Apr 1st, 2009 by Amy Elliott
Sound the alarm
Close my blog now. OK, not NOW now, in like 2 minutes from now. Get up and git yourself back to the main page. Breathe. Take it in. This is for real. Unified, organized(ish), bleeding edge, here and now journalism. Your search is over. Explore the site. Explore Milwaukee. Explore our 3rd Coast. Milwaukee Film is alive and well with screenings galore. Film Wisconsin is bare-knuckle brawlin’ the Gov, which is in line with spirit of true indie film. More and more galleries/artists are VJ-ing, vlogging, adding film showcases … it’s so here and now, its practically reading this blog, with a drink, smiling, scrolling, click … Oh wait, that’s you. You may click away now. Now git!
Mar 7th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
HANDMADE NATION – Milw Premiere – Feb 5th @ The Oriental – BE THERE!
click here and peep Handmade Nation game. The February 5 screening of “Handmade Nation” will be its U.S. feature premiere. The screening takes place 7 p.m. Thursday, February 5, at Landmark’s Oriental Theatre, 2230 N. Farwell Ave. The film has had preview screenings as a work in progress in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Wisconsin. Just prior to the Milwaukee feature screening, it is being shown at the Kampnagel Theatre in Hamburg as part of “Viva La Craft.” February 5 will be the first time a U.S. audience will see the feature-length cut. “There are so many Milwaukee people who have helped make this film possible,” said FaytheLevine, co-owner of Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery and organizer of the yearly indie craft fair Art vs. Craft. “It was a very specific choice to screen it here first because I wanted to show it to the local community who supported if for the past three years.” “Handmade Nation” documents the new wave of craft that is capturing the attention of the nation. It’s the feature film debut of Levine who had been making her own art and was becoming increasingly active in the modern crafts scene when it occurred to her to document the trend. “I was going to all these fairs and I remember thinking: Something big is happening,” she told the New York Times in a Sept. 4 feature story. For the film project that ensued, she traveled to 15 cities and covered more than 19,000 miles to interview a new generation of stitchers, sewers, quilters, knitters and beaders – do-it-yourselfers who bring attitude and an independent edge to old-school techniques. In addition to the local talent involved behind the scenes, “Handmade Nation” features a slice of Milwaukee’s craft scene. The Little Friends of Printmaking, a world famous design duo, are among the featured artists, and some footage was filmed at Fasten Co-Op Clothing Gallery, located at 2224 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. in Bay View, and an Art vs. Craft event. An accompanying book “Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design,” co-authored by Levine and assistant producer Cortney Heimerl, was published in October by Princeton Architectural Press. Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase on the night of the screening. The postcard and movie posters for the Milwaukee screening were designed by Kate Bingaman-Burt, who is also responsible for the hand-drawn typography in the book. A limited run of 200 silk-screened movie posters will be printed by The Little Friends of Printmaking, www.thelittlefriendsofprintmaking.com. Tickets, $10 each, are available at the Oriental box office 4-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday and noon-10 p.m. Friday-Sunday, or on the night of the show subject to availability. Interviews with Faythe Levine can be arranged by contacting Milwaukee Film. For more information on “Handmade Nation” visit www.handmadenationmovie.com More information about Milwaukee Film is available by visiting its group, Milwaukee Film, on Facebook.com.
Jan 29th, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
Milwaukee Filmmaker Speakeasy
Michael Sotille of Lemon Lounge @ Oakland and Locust … So I told Grandma I loved her and then Grandpa ambled onto the phone. We did the wife, dog, salon updates and I heard about the latest movies to sneak into at the budget cinema and how there will never be peace in Israel in his lifetime. I um-hmm along and the call (as always) ended with “Give Carly a big kiss and say hello to the boys in the back room.” Kissing the wife is no prob, but the boys in the back room? That’s kinda sick. I want a back room. We are on the top of Mt. 2009, so cut me some slack and allow me to gently dissect one of the challenges I experience as a fringe filmmaker and late-night screenwriter in Milwaukee. There is no spot. No filmmaker’s speakeasy. Bike messengers have the Swingin’ Door on Michigan to talk about short-billed hats and fixed gears; fat cat lawyers and judges pop over for lunch at Jake’s Deli on North to feel out pleas and city nominations. Filmmakers need that softly lit, sideways bar to hunch over and steal a look when the door creaks open to see if a comrade has entered. We need a place to drink in the anomalous delights of speaking the same, strange film language, a place to go to procrastinate, offer condolences for projects that die, do shots to films that spring to life, argue about this editor or that scene and just talk shit in general. A filmmaker’s back room if you will. Will you? I thought you would. So then, the mission is set! And I think I gots it: Lemon Lounge on Oakland. Owner/bartender Michael Sottile has been around the block of the independent film world. Since 1992, he has appeared in Reservoir Dogs, Speed, Outbreak and a few indie feature films starring opposite Julie Bowen (ER, Weeds, Lost, Boston Legal) and Traci Lords (amazing!). Sottile’s latest appearance is in Modus Operandi (directed by Frankie Latina; trailer on myspace.com/frankielatina), which was shot on Super 8mm in Milwaukee on a self-proclaimed budget of CHEAP. For those keeping score, that is some dirt-under-the-nails filmmaking. Walk into Lemon and shut the door quickly behind you, because chances are you’ll let out all the heat. The place is tiny, the size of a forgotten box office more than a bar, sitting in the shadows of the Miramar Theater on Oakland. Dimly lit with candles and white Christmas lights, Lemon comes on like a Brooklyn cellar bar or a Parisian lounge with its own Hemingway story. Hanging from the exposed brick walls are sentimental paintings, a few old film posters and a framed Rolling Stone’s Let It Bleed record. You can’t fuck with that. Bottom line: you get the feeling that this is a place where stories are told and business gets done. Lemon frequently hosts private screenings or showings of works-in-progress on their flat screen/DVD/stereo sound set up. In fact, walk-in, […]
Jan 1st, 2009 by Howie Goldklang
